The last bite

02 November 2012
Volume 28 · Issue 10

Musical tooth numbering

Hardly had the ink dried on my recent items on gold and celebrity teeth when two follow-up stories crept into the press. Regular readers will recall that one of John Lennon’s molars (extracted while he was alive) had been sold at auction to a Canadian dentist for £19K, but it now seems that in Austria a thief has desecrated the graves of Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms and stolen teeth of the famous composers.

While it is thought that the thefts have been perpetrated in order to put the teeth into a museum, it does seem a very farfetched method of representing classical music. Not even Gareth Malone of television’s The Choir fame has yet hit on the idea of a chorus of dead singers and musicians.

Meanwhile, in a move that is distinctly macabre but in these times of financial squeeze not entirely unsurprising, it is reported that some city councils in Germany are recycling gold teeth after cremations in order to raise cash for the public purse. What Euro crisis?

 

Tales of old wives

There is something appealing about old wives tales that is difficult to pin down. On the one hand they seem to be a bit daft and almost certainly not evidenced-based, whilst on the other the folk wisdom of possibly hundreds of years of observation defies you to doubt the seeds of truth that they surely must hold.

I remember being told as a child that chimney sweeps had good teeth because they cleaned them with soot. Later it seemed that the contrast between their carbon-blackened faces and therefore apparently very white teeth could be the reason (should we be promoting face darkening rather than tooth whitening I wonder?). Later still, it was pointed out that soot is very abrasive, so probably does make teeth cleaner – until it abrades them away!

So what of the most recent one to come my way that horseradish might cure toothache because it contains allyl isothiocyanate which acts as a local anaesthetic? Or it could be that it is just so eye-watering that it makes you forget your pulpitis.

 

Hive of activity

What extraordinary folk archaeological dental experts are; it seems that a human jawbone which is over 6,500 years old has been found to contain an early filling in the form of beeswax. Recent analysis of the jawbone, which was found in Slovenia 100 years ago, has now identified a tooth in which it appears that wax has been used as a restorative material. The canine has a crack which extends from the outer enamel to the dentine beneath, with the severity of the wear suggesting it was used in a ‘non-alimentary activity’ (a habit to you and me, or an occupational injury) such as weaving.

In modern times we tend to use such materials in prosthodontics rather than in restorative dentistry but placing such a filling does bring a whole new meaning to ‘wax up’.

 

September Winner

The winner of the September prize of Beverly Hills Formula products is Nick Murphy of Wigan for the caption: ‘I think we have a contender for the Triple Crown!’